Upgrading to Windows 10 and chasing drivers for lots and lots of specialized programs and, from a project standpoint, firearm parts and a replacement drive belt for the lathe won’t be in until Friday. So rather than twiddle my thumbs…
Rinse under cold water and remove the backside membrane from 5lbs to 7lbs of baby back ribs. Place the ribs in plastic bags and immerse them in a mixture of 12 oz of orange juice concentrate and 36 oz of water. Refrigerate and let marinate overnight.
Put together a rub:
2 teaspoon minced onions
2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Remove the ribs from the refrigerator, drain off excess orange juice, and coat with rub mixture. The residual orange juice will hold onto the rub, so cooking oil is not required.
Place ribs on open racks in a preheated smoker. I set mine to 225ºF, seasoned with apple chip smoke and stagger the ribs at different rack levels so one will not drip on another; it took only three hours from the smoker to go from spotless to the pictured condition. Apple wood chips were added every hour for three hours.
At the 3 hour mark, the ribs were removed, wrapped in foil, a thermometer was inserted, and the ribs were returned to the smoker for another 3 hours, when internal meat temp bumped over 195ºF.
The ribs were pulled from the smoker and left to rest for 20 minutes. Cooking to 195ºF melted a lot of the connective tissue, so the ribs were moist and tender and gone… very quickly. I know, time to get back to work.
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